Mountaineers’ Cemetery

The basics

Set in a church garden, the Mountaineer’s Cemetery is free to enter and you can walk amid the memorial stones and graves, many of which date back to the 19th century. While some epitaphs reveal causes of deaths like an avalanche or a rockfall, others are simply inscribed with names, leaving you to ponder their stories as you walk.

Things to know before you go

• The graveyard is small and compact, so you won’t need more than 30 minutes to visit.

• There is a level pathway around the headstones.

• It’s worth crossing the road to see Zermatt’s main cemetery, which is beautifully maintained with colorful flowers and candles.

How to get there

The Mountaineer’s Cemetery is on the Kirchstrasse, right next to the Kirchbrücke, one of the bridges across the Vispa River. You enter the cemetery via the garden of the Catholic St. Mauritius Church. It’s easily walkable from the center of Zermatt or from other visitor sites like the nearby Matterhorn Museum.

When to get there

The Mountaineer’s Cemetery is always open for visitors to enter and walk around. It’s rarely busy whenever you visit, though there may be more people around when there’s a Mass at the church.

The Matterhorn Museum and Inderbinen memorial

The headstones are certainly sobering, so it’s worth combining a cemetery visit with a trip to the nearby Matterhorn Museum to learn more about mountaineering in general, and admire some feats of achievement, too. Here, films, interactive displays, and exhibits are all arranged around a reconstructed 19th-century alpine village. Another interesting sight in Zermatt town is the memorial fountain honoring Ulrich Inderbinen, the legendary local guide who scaled the Matterhorn hundreds of times, completing his final ascent at the age of 90.